Soul Skis

Document your personal work here. Show photos, movies, and share your secrets.

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Dr. Delam
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Joined: Thu Feb 01, 2007 10:07 am
Location: Truckee

Post by Dr. Delam »

Thanks guys. I appreciate the praise.

MadRussian, if you haven't played around with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, I highly recommend using them for graphic design. They are incredibly powerful and I learn something new with every project. You will spend hours and hours learning and experimenting but it is a lot of fun once you get familiar with the functions. There are countless tutorials on youtube and various forums. Keep at it and I am sure you will be amazed at what you come up with.
MadRussian
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Post by MadRussian »

Dr. Delam wrote:Thanks guys. I appreciate the praise.

MadRussian, if you haven't played around with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, I highly recommend using them for graphic design. They are incredibly powerful and I learn something new with every project. You will spend hours and hours learning and experimenting but it is a lot of fun once you get familiar with the functions. There are countless tutorials on youtube and various forums. Keep at it and I am sure you will be amazed at what you come up with.
I haven't played with Photoshop yet. Currently I work on production process to make sure skis came out right. Maybe in the future when I take care all of the problems. With every build punchlist become shorter one thing for sure before to go with graphics I will try wood veneer
I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
Thomas A. Edison
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Dr. Delam
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Location: Truckee

Post by Dr. Delam »

New Vortex Park skis for me. 17 meter radius which has been super fun carving on groomed runs. These are 180 cm and a little longer, stiffer, and heavier than my other park skis so these are better for taking them outside the park.

Cores are poplar, oak, fir, and batu sidewalls, profiled to 3.2-12.5-3.2.

Tip and tail rise equal 6 cm, dimensions 116-90-110, skis weigh 8 lbs. 6 ounces, 3 mm camber.

QCM 43 resin, 32 hardener pressing at 180 bottom heat, 160 top at 40 psi.
7 degree sidewall bevel, nylon graphics done with photoshop. 22 oz glass top and bottom with an extra layer over the uhmw tip fill.

I felt bad trashing these on some rails the first day but got over that quickly.

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vinman
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Post by vinman »

DD, so sweet, love your stuff!!
Fighting gravity on a daily basis
www.Whiteroomcustomskis.com
skidesmond
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Post by skidesmond »

Beautiful! The ski dims sound beefy, they should carve very nicely outside the park.
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Dr. Delam
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Post by Dr. Delam »

You guys are too kind. I have been having a blast on these. Just what the Dr. ordered.
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Dr. Delam
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Post by Dr. Delam »

New Soul Jah all mountain twin tip skis for my son. I haven't done anything drastically new with my building but I did make a new tip mold with a tighter radius for more tip height. I'm also trying out oak for the sidewalls this time.

Skis are 180 cm, 19 m radius, 133-108-125, with a few mm of camber.
Cores are pine center, balau under binders, and poplar with oak sidewalls. Core profile is 3.2-12.1-3.2. I also made the tips spacers longer than usual to help maintain tip height.

Skis came out awesome but the colors were a little off. Wherever the black is has a greenish tint to it and the red looks a little too pinkish. It doesn't show up so much in the pictures but it definitely looks different than what was on my computer monitor when I drew it up.

Time to grind and mount these up so I can test these out before I give them to him.
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vinman
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Post by vinman »

Great stuff as usual
Fighting gravity on a daily basis
www.Whiteroomcustomskis.com
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Dr. Delam
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Location: Truckee

Post by Dr. Delam »

Thanks Vinman. If you find yourself at Stowe or Smuggs keep an eye out for these as that's where my son will be skiing. But first we are off to Snowbird and Jackson Hole next week! Fired up!
Dtrain
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Post by Dtrain »

Those cores look sick dr.
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Dr. Delam
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Post by Dr. Delam »

Another pair of park skis for my son. He broke his tails landing switch on his last pair so this pair I used new tip and tail molds to make the tip height much higher measuring about 8 cm.

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I used the same template for 17 m radius, 114-88-109, 175 cm and beefed up the core thickness a bit.

I opted not to do a rabbet on the sidewalls due to the fact that the birch was tearing out badly when profiling and I was afraid that the core would have been ruined. There was a big chunk missing right near the end of the core just past where I was going to do my cutoff and it was too thin where I would start the router and feed in. So instead I just cut the fiberglass to fit within the edges to level it out. The bases came out just a little edge high as the fiberglass definitely compresses some. With some grinding and hand beveling they are looking pretty damn good. The VDS got squeezed out but just underfoot which I surmise was the result of not having fiberglass over it. Won't be doing this technique again.

I was going to use a cork layer but like a dumbass I ordered the wrong stuff and got a cork/rubber mix. I did a test scrap layup and the layer was probably bonding well enough but I didn't want to chance it so I didn't use it.

The only real issue I had with these was getting the graphics perfectly centered. It's a lot easier with two people so I struggled a bit by myself and had to pull it off and reposition. In doing so the tip spacers gapped out a little from the core. Only cosmetic really but I know its there. Next build I plan on putting a small scrap attached to the sidewall and stapling the tip spacer to it. A little extra step but guaranteed tight to the core.

Graphics were some some sketches that my son drew up with a couple Native American patterns thrown in. I had Chad at Coda print up the graphics and I stopped by his place to pick them up after skiing Kirkwood and got to see his shop. Kirkwood has been ripping!

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MontuckyMadman
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Post by MontuckyMadman »

Cork rubber mix sounds awesome. from Where?
sammer wrote: I'm still a tang on top guy.
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Dr. Delam
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Post by Dr. Delam »

Here's where I got mine from. http://www.cleverbrand.com/default.aspx?CN=3D9103C82BC2

I was unsure if the rubber would bond so I didn't use it. In my test piece there were parts that bonded very well and others not so much.

I'm going to try just the plain cork that I just ordered.
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Akiwi
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Post by Akiwi »

Dr. Delam wrote:Here's where I got mine from. http://www.cleverbrand.com/default.aspx?CN=3D9103C82BC2

I was unsure if the rubber would bond so I didn't use it. In my test piece there were parts that bonded very well and others not so much.

I'm going to try just the plain cork that I just ordered.
Where were you intending to put the cork layer? I assume you would be using it for the damping properties.

And I also assume it would be within the sidewalls somehow.
I am nobody. Nobody's perfect, so I must be perfect.
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Dr. Delam
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Post by Dr. Delam »

I am using the cork for vibration damping and simple filler. I cut it out to fit between the edges going right on top of the base. I also put a layer on top of the plastic tip spacer to match core thickness. This is my first pair using cork so I'll have a follow up after I ski them to see if I can notice anything different.
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